AAA: SWB rained out
AA: Trenton rained out.
High A: Tampa (63-71) split a DH.
Reg. sched. game: Lost 4-0, getting just 2 hits. SS Diego Castillo’s 3 errors led to 3 unearned runs.
Makeup of 8/27 rainout: Won 5-3. Castillo 2 hits, RBI. 1B Steven Sensley 2 hits, 2 RBI.
Low A: Charleston (69-66) lost 8-5. LF Canaan Smith 2 hits, .306. RF Josh Stowers 2 RBI. C Eduardo Navas 3 hits, 2 RBI. 2 solo HR.
Posted in Mike's Musings, Minor Leagues, Players, Regular Season
From MLB.com
Yankees (Surprise): Daniel Bies, RHP; Glenn Otto, RHP; Donny Sands, C; Josh Stowers, OF; Brandon Wagner, 1B
Acquired from the Mariners in an offshoot of the Sonny Gray trade in January, Stowers has a chance to have four average or better tools, with his arm the lone exception. Otto has had difficulty staying healthy but can reach 97 mph and devastate hitters with his curveball when he’s at 100 percent.
Posted in Mike's Musings, Minor Leagues, Players
2020 wiped away a lot from MLB, including the Field of Dreams game, which was originally supposed to be the Yankees vs. the White Sox, then supposed to be the Cardinals/White Sox, then postponed completely.
Let’s hope 2021 sees the virus gone or contained.
From MLB.com:
The “MLB at Field of Dreams presented by GEICO” event has been tentatively scheduled for Aug. 12, 2021, with the White Sox taking on the Yankees in Dyersville, Iowa, Major League Baseball announced on Monday.
The game, which will be nationally televised on FOX, is contingent on the status of public health next summer, and the feasibility of hosting fans at the event will be evaluated in the coming months. It will mark the first Major League game ever played in the state of Iowa.
MLB was initially set to host the “Field of Dreams” game featuring the same two clubs this past season, having built a temporary ballpark with a potential capacity of 8,000 fans adjacent to the site of the 1989 film, which starred Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones and Amy Madigan.
Posted in Media, Regular Season
As we await Thanksgiving and the Hot Stove League heats up along with the turkey, some Yankees news.
Aroldis Chapman’s suspension was reduced from three games to two and will be served at the beginning of the 2021 season. … whenever it starts. With all going on, who knows?
Yankees’ minor league coach Miguel Cairo has left the organization to become Tony LaRussa’s bench coach with the White Sox. Yes, surprising that 76 year old LaRussa, already in the Hall of Fame, is returning to managing. Look out Connie Mack!
The Yanks put four minor leaguers on the 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. SS Oswald Peraza and three minor league pitchers: Roansy Contreras, Alexander Vizcaino and Yoendrys Gomez. Vizcaino is 23, the others 20 or 21.
Ex-Yankee Robbie Cano has been suspended for all of 2021 due to PEDs. It is the second time Cano has been caught. He was suspended for 80 games in 2018.
Cano (Yankees 2005-2013, Mariners 2014-2018, Mets 2019-2020) should have been a Hall of Famer. A .303 career batting average, 8x All-Star, WS champion (2009), over 2600 hits, over 300 HR. A runner-up for ROY. MVP consideration 8x, and 6x top -10 for MVP, 4x top-5 for MVP. OPS+ 126. 162 game average .303-24-94. Two Gold Gloves. Five Silver Sluggers. Baseball-Reference has him ranked the 7th best 2B of all-time.
Put an asterisk next to all those numbers. Forget the Hall of Fame.
Put him in the Hall of Stupid, the Hall of Arrogance, whatever. But not the Hall of Fame.
Dummy.
Lindy McDaniel, who to this date is the last Yankees’ pitcher to hit a HR, has died of Covid at the age of 84.
McDaniel pitched for the Cardinals (1955-1962), Cubs (1963-1965), Giants (1966-1968), Yankees (1968-1973) and Royals (1974-1975). He pitched in 987 games, all but 74 in relief.
He was an All-Star in 1960, a season when he was 3rd in CYA voting and 5th in MVP voting, going 12-4, 2.09 with a MLB leading 27 saves. He led the NL in winning percentage. He also led MLB in saves in 1959 and the NL in 1963.
He was 141-119 in his career, with 174 saves. His 162 game average was 9-8, 3.45, 11 saves, ERA+ 110.
In 1970, he was 9-5, 2.01 with 29 saves for the Yankees. He went 12-6, 2.86 in 1973 with 10 saves as a setup man for Sparky Lyle. After the 1973 season, McDaniel was traded to KC for Lou Piniella and Ken Wright.
He never pitched in a postseason game, despite 21 years in the majors.
As a hitter, he hit .148 with 3 HR, but his last one is the one remembered. In the last year before the DH, on September 28, 1972, McDaniel hit a HR in the top of the 9th at Detroit off of Mickey Lolich to put the Yankees up 2-1. (He gave up a run in the bottom of the 9th and the Yankees won 3-2 in 12 innings, Roy White GW HR in the top of the 12th off Lolich, Lyle the win). It is the last Yankee HR by a pitcher to this date.
After retirement, he became a Christian minister.
Jose Abreu of the White Sox was named the AL MVP tonight.
The Yankees’ D.J. LeMahieu finished third (he was fourth in 2019), and teammate Luke Voit finished ninth.
The NL MVP is Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman.
It’s awards season for MLB, and the final awards for MVP go out tonight. AL MVP is the only one in which a Yankee may win, since D.J. LeMahieu has been announced as one of the top three finalists.
If LeMahieu does win, he will be the first Yankee to win the MVP since A-Rod* in 2007.
Other award winners:
NL Rookie of the Year: Devin Williams, Milwaukee relief pitcher
AL Rookie of the Year: Kyle Lewis, Seattle CF
NL Manager of the Year: Yankees Legend Don Mattingly, Miami.
AL Manager of the Year: Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash
NL Cy Young Award: Trevor Bauer, Cincinnati (currently a free agent)
AL Cy Young Award: Shane Bieber, Cleveland.
The Yankees’ Gerrit Cole finished 4th for the AL CYA.
D.J. LeMahieu won the Silver Slugger Award for AL 2B after a season when he led the majors in batting average (.364), and led the AL in OBP, OPS and adjusted OPS (177, 100 is average). LeMahieu had also won the award in 2019.
Luke Voit, despite a great season when he led the majors in HR (22 in the shortened 60 game season), (.277-22-52, Adjusted OPS 156) lost out at 1B to Jose Abreu of the White Sox. Abreu hit .317-19-60. Abreu led the majors in RBI and total bases (and Grounding into DPs) and the AL in games played (all 60), hits, slugging average. His adjusted OPS was 166.
Although finalists for the Gold Glove award, neither 3B Gio Urshela or OF Clint Frazier were winners of the award.
Award winners were announced yesterday. With the election going on, easy to miss.
Unlike the election (so far), we know who won as far as the Gold Gloves go.
MLB listed the finalists (top 3) for its major awards next week, and D.J. LeMahieu, who finished 4th for the AL MVP last year, is in the top 3.
We’ll find out next week if he wins it.
From ESPN
The New York Yankees have let Tommy Kahnle become a free agent rather than allow him to become eligible for salary arbitration ahead of a season he is likely to largely miss while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
New York said Saturday that the hard-throwing 31-year-old right-hander had refused an outright assignment to the minor leagues and elected to become a free agent, Kahnle’s right as a player with at least three years of major league service.
Kahnle has 5 years, 131 days of major league service and despite the injury would have been likely to get a raise after making $2.65 million last season.
Kahnle only pitched in one game for the Yankees in 2020 before needing Tommy John surgery which will cost him all of 2021. So why pay for nothing?
Kahnle has had a great 2017 with the Yankees, poor 2018, and great 2019 before a waste of a 2020 and another waste of a 2021 forthcoming.
The lack of Kahnle in the bullpen in 2020 was felt, especially with the struggles of Adam Ottavino compounding matters.
